James Wilson, M.D., by Professor De Morgan 399 Oliver Cromwell: the "Whale" and the "Storm" in 1658, by A. Grayan 400 Authenticated Instances of Longevity 401 Replies to Minor Queries:--Haberdascher--Cou-bache--Meaning of Groom--Grinning like a Cheshire Cat--Mallet's Death and Burial--Town-halls, &c. 402 MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, &c. 406 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 406 Notices to Correspondents 406 Advertisements 407 Notes. THE TREDESCANTS AND ELIAS ASHMOLE. (_Continued from_ p. 368.) Whether it was Ashmole's influence, or that the equity of the case was on his side, is uncertain; but the Court of Chancery decided in his favour, and he was declared the proprietor of the Tredescantian Museum. He obtained, without being able to produce any written document which declared his right to the possession, all that the two Tredescants, father and son, had with inexpressible trouble, and by means of many voyages, brought together in their Museum and Botanic Garden. The judgement of the Lord Chancellor[1] (Clarendon) was: "He, Ashmole, shall have and enjoy all and singular the bookes, coynes, medalls, stones, pictures, mechanicks, and antiquities, and all and every other the raryties and curiosities, of what sort or kind soever, whether naturall or artificiall, which were in John Tredescant's Closett, or in or about his house at South Lambeth the 16th December, 1659, and which were commonly deemed, taken, and reputed as belonging or appertaining to the said Closett, or Collection of Rarities, an abstract whereof was heretofore printed under the tytle of 'Museum Tredescantianum.'" [Footnote 1: "The means of exhibiting Lord Clarendon as an equity judge," says Mr. Lister, "and of estimating his efficiency, are very scanty. The political functions of the Lord Chancellor then preponderated over the judicial functions much more than at present." He had for twenty years ceased to practise at the bar, and the very different avocations of that long period may have tended to unfit him. It is said that he never made a decree without the assistance of two of the judges: this implies a consciousness of want of knowledge, but, as his biographer says, "does not prove that the precaution was required."] Mrs. Tredescant was adjudged to have merely during her life a kind of custody of, or guardianship over the collection, "subject to the Trust for the Defendant during her life."